Pages

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Gettin' Our "Brave" On...

There are countless ways that my son Isaac pushes the level of my own bravery constantly to the next notch! Of course, this blogpost is certainly not about me anymore than having Isaac be born as my child was about me. I'm so glad I can trust an almighty, sovereign God who knows more about me and more about my child than I do! Somehow He saw fit to let Whitley and I be the parents of this amazing, intellegent kid, who has become my hero!

Isaac started wearing glasses when he was 2. His left eye crossed inward so for a year he wore the glasses with a patch over his right eye. This strengthened the vision of his left eye, which his brain had almost completely shut off because of the crossing. He was very obedient about it all, and although he was as rough and tumbly as any other boy his age, he kept the glasses on really well! Isaac had one surgery at 3 years old which held for quite some time. As kids grow, however, many times there is a need to reoperate and shift the muscles of the eyes again to restraighten them. He had to have another such surgery when he was 6 and again at 10. Patching his strong eye doesn't have to be as constant as it did when he was younger, but we still have to do that some. The surgery he had a year and a half ago never seemed to really help much. He not only sees double, but there is so much extra tension in the muscles above one of his eyes, that eventually that eye shifts downward really hard while he's reading. I can't imagine how annoying that must be! He doesn't complain about that a whole lot but really gets frustrated with some lighting issues that his doctor says are related to his eye position. Thus, we had the 4th surgery on Tuesday!

It was nice to have a little time to "get some brave on" before the big day.

He had a pre-operative appointment on Monday so we didn't have a ton of extra time to do stuff,

but we did make use of what time we had!

At the Smokestack Restaurant in Thurber.

The next few are of the Lego Model of the hospital. We thought it was really awesome!

We went to Zooty Fruity's and had never been there before.

You pick your kind of frozen yogurt from 12 different kinds, then whatever toppings you want.

They charge by the weight of your treat after you are done "building" it.

Mommy's

Daddy's on Left; Isaac's on Right

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express just down the road from Cooks.

They had some treats waiting for him! This little hat was filled with a Star Wars glow-in-the-dark puzzle, a Transformers Coloring Book, some googley-eyed glasses, candy, and a card.

Tuesday morning.... EARLY at Cooks

Whitley had this thought that Isaac should play a little joke on Dr. Moody with the funny glasses. It made Isaac laugh really hard EVERY time he thought about it! Sure enough, he did it! Dr. Moody walked in the room while Isaac was wearing his googley eyes. Isaac said, "Hey....doc.... I NEED SURGERY!!!!!!"

Here is Dr. Moody pulling out a goody bag of toys for him to choose from. Isaac chose to take a little monkey, thinking he would give it to Luke when he got home. He also got to choose some sunglasses for afterwards. Those always come in handy, but light is particularly brutal after the surgery.

Right before they took him back, I checked his blood one more time to make sure that he was where he needed to be. I had turned his pump down about an hour prior to surgery so he was cruising at 200. Perfect! Not too high, and in particular not to low which we definitely don't want during surgery!

Whitley said a prayer which made Isaac cry, but it was good and he knew he was loved. Then Dr. Moody and the nurse took him back for his surgery which was done in just over an hour.

We got home yesterday afternoon and today Isaac is finally starting to try to get his eyes open. He was in a lot of pain yesterday and was pretty bloody, but today seems to be better as long as I keep the meds coming! I have to put some antibiotic drops in his eyes, but I'm lucky to get past those goopy, mile-long eyelashes! I've been told that getting it on the eyelashes is helpful though, so I just keep trying!